Man loses weight after unflattering Google Maps Street View image

A man in need of some weight-loss inspiration found it after seeing himself on Google Maps Street View.

The Daily Mail reported that Bob Mewse, 56, weighed 296 pounds a year ago when he saw himself on the mapping service that uses a 360-degree camera to record images. The camera shot a side view of the Bristol, England man wearing a gray shirt near a filling station.

"I was horrified when I saw that photo," he told the Telegraph . "I was massive. My belly was sticking out and I looked huge."

He said he was also having back problems and "sky-high" blood pressure. The Daily Mail said he was driving 30 miles to find clothes to fit him.

Mewse headed to a gym and got help from a personal trainer who also helped him develop a healthy eating plan. Cakes and other desserts were replaced with fruit, salads and protein-rich foods.

CBS News said the morbidly-obese man lost 98 pounds.

"If I can do this, anybody can," he said. "I'm just an ordinary bloke. I feel much healthier now."

Google Street View has long contributed to interesting stories. That has been the case recently as Ubergizmo.com reported Google has been under fire by privacy advocates in Germany who believe people have a right not to have a photo of them turn up online.

A graduate student has come up with a software that will digitally remove pedestrians from Street View images. Ubergizmo, though, said this could lead to some haunting effects since what's left behind are ghost-like shapes, sometimes still connected to shoes and feet.

Google has also lent a hand to efforts to bust crime. The New York Post reported three heroin dealers were seen in images trying to peddle drugs on a street corner. Residents had been complaining about them selling drugs in the open.

They were recently among seven dealers arrested in an undercover New York Police Department sting.

Police had used their own surveillance cameras to get proof of the actual drug transactions. Law enforcement sources, though, had said Google Street View images had captured images of them working the corner.

Gawker.com reported in October that in one image it appeared as though blurry, possibly robed figures were caught hovering above a lake in Quarten, Switzerland.

"Is it something on the camera lens?" Gawker asked.